1. Field of Art
The disclosure generally relates to displaying reports on a device having a display area that is small relative to the amount of data that is being displayed.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are several ways of using charts or graphs to visually present statistical data available in reports including, for example, bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and scatter graphs. On a mobile device such as a handheld device, handheld computer, cell phone, tablet computer, or personal digital assistant (PDA), graphs and charts have to be displayed on small display screens with display areas that are limited in size compared to the data being shown. There are several challenges in trying to show graphs and charts on such devices. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a stacked bar chart and some of the obstacles encountered in displaying a stacked bar chart on a small screen. FIG. 1 displays an x-axis 135, a y-axis 130 and the corresponding x-coordinate values 145 and the y-coordinate values 140 for the stacked bar chart. Each stack 120 in a stacked bar chart corresponds to an x-coordinate value and represents multiple y-coordinate values where each value is displayed by a bar in the stack with height determined by the y-coordinate value corresponding to the bar. For example, the stacked bar 120 has three bars 105, 110, and 115 each representing a different y-coordinate value. The height of the stacked bar 120 corresponds to the aggregate y-coordinate value of all the bars in the stack. Additional information corresponding to the different kinds of bars may be represented by a legend 125. The height of each bar in a stack 120 is proportional to the value represented by the bar. Due to the fixed resolution of typical display screens, two values that are very close may be represented by bars appearing to have the same height. Hence, the height of the bars may not truly represent the corresponding y-coordinate value. In addition, it is difficult for a viewer to know the exact value corresponding to each bar 105, 110, or 115 or the aggregate value of the stacked bar 120 by looking at the stacked bar.